


Her Endearing Gaze

by DeCappuccino



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Human AU, Love Letters, Nerdy Peridot, Pining, Short One Shot, Shy Lapis, Silly, but she has a resting bitch face, like ALOT, no beta we die like men, she's also overreacting, the result of wanting a super specific scenario written out so you just do it yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27243337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeCappuccino/pseuds/DeCappuccino
Summary: “She’s looking, isn’t she?” Peridot hisses. Her head is ducked low, chin barely brushing against the unkempt desks of Beach City High in a poor attempt to make herself seem smaller.“Christ, P-Dot. She looks so pissed!” Amethyst fails to muffle her raucous laughter. “What did you do? Insult her old iphone or something?”A silly one-shot. Lapidot Highschool AU.
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Her Endearing Gaze

“She’s looking, isn’t she?” Peridot hisses. Her head is ducked low, chin barely brushing against the unkempt desks of Beach City High in a poor attempt to make herself seem smaller.

“Christ, P-Dot. She looks so pissed!” The girl next to her fails to muffle her raucous laughter. “What did you do? Insult her old iphone or something? She looks like she wants to say some things to you.”

  
  
Peridot can feel the sweat rolling down her forehead as she struggles to keep her eyes on the board. The feeling of eyes burning thickly into her skull sent cold shivers down her spine. 

What would normally ease her racing thoughts only further added to the uneasiness she felt. The usually exciting drone of equations and mathematical sentences swirled in one ear and tumbled out the other, as if she’d shaken her head to clear her ears of water. She sank into her seat with a whimper. Anymore and she would be slipping onto the floor like a sad excuse for a ragdoll. Oh she was dead. She was so _fucking_ dead. 

But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why!  
  


The girl had transferred in earlier this month, halfway through the current senior school year. It came as a bit of a surprise to find a student with electric blue hair neutrally introducing herself first thing on a Wednesday morning. Within twenty seconds of her introduction, her eyes landed on Peridot by chance. And as if her life was shitty cliché rom-com, Peridot felt a spark light up her body before it was immediately dulled into a feeling of pure unadulterated dread. She was practically singled out in their tiny classroom, and the girl’s stare seemed to harden immensely. A cold glare settled on the blonde and dared not leave it until she took a seat.

Lapis Lazuli. All leather jackets, tanned skin, ripped jeans and pierced ears. The very spitting image of a high school delinquent. Peridot wouldn't be surprised if she saw her running around with a baseball bat, attacking random parked cars in the middle of the night for no other reason than to be a little shit. At this point, she’s attended this school for two weeks and the only thing she has ever caught her wearing were those insufferably short crop tops. Often described as a person with sexy, if not frigid scowls. Topped with an intimidating aura of one that could crush you with just a look if they wanted to. Which to her credit, if were true, she was doing a great job at defying death right now _._

She had never seen this girl in her life! She would’ve remembered someone as vibrantly attractive-

_Nope. Nope. Nope. Not going there._

Peridot mentally slapped herself. Of course Lapis was attractive. Most transfer students tended to be, as often advertised in modern century literature. As wonderful as it was to daydream about her dreamy soft lips, she couldn’t _afford_ to get distracted. 

Peridot figured she had approximately ten seconds to make a break for it as soon as the bell rang. To where? She didn’t know, just as long as she wasn’t within the same vicinity. The distance between her and Lazuli was occupied by three other students. As long as she played her cards right, she could potentially use those bodies as a barrier to ensure her safe escape into the, arguably safer, bustling high school halls. Overly dramatic? Maybe a bit. Peridot had a rather wild imagination. If watching anime was any indication.

She would turn to Amethyst for help, but the girl was far too deep into her ritualistic class nap to assist in any conceivable way.

Packing her things up discreetly, as to not tick off her teacher, she impatiently waited for the bell to ring. 

Only a few seconds passed before her thoughts kicked up another whirlwind of absurd, ill-conceived scenarios. Perhaps she was over-exaggerating everything. It wasn’t like the girl intended harm right?

_Then why is she constantly glaring at you?_

Interest maybe? 

_Who in their right mind would find_ me _interesting??_

Peridot thought, and then, _What if she’s a magical girl._

  
 _Oh my god, I_ have _been watching too much anime..._

She’s reminded of the time she had the brief misfortune of running into the quite frightening girl a few days ago. Peridot had excused herself during a study period to use the restroom after spilling a puddle of neon paints all over her desk. As soon as she pushed the heavyset door open, she stumbled straight into the person exiting.  
  
“Sorry sorry!” She apologized “I didn’t…” She cuts herself off before going completely stiff. _Oh God Damn it._

“S’fine.” The taller girl muttered. She adjusted the backpack on her shoulder, tilting her head to look at the blonde. Her expression was one of subtle annoyance. A deep scowl already settling along her features. Despite that, her cheeks held a faint reddish hue. Lapis looked at her, almost as if she wanted to say something herself. 

Something in Peridot's brain kicks into overdrive, and as if rudely shoved by some paranormal force, she vaulted her body away from the door to let the other girl pass. “My bad!” She squeaks.

“Uh… it’s no problem…?” She squints at the shorter girl, and Peridot uses this as her chance to practically dive into the nearest stall. She had only come in there to wash her hands after spilling paint all over them. But she’d camp out here if she had to.

She hears a sigh, before the door shuts closed.

  
Peridot involuntarily shuddered at the memory. That was anger right? What else could a red face mean?? A sigh of unmitigated anger??? _Maybe she does wanna shank me_ — for whatever reason. It was entirely plausible granted the reason why she apparently transferred here in the first place.

Just so, (these were allegedly just rumors) was because she stabbed her crazy ex with a pencil during a very heated argument. _If_ the rumors proved to be true, it instilled a great deal of fear within the tiny blonde. In any case, her resolve strengthened. As soon as that familiar chime echoed Peridot shot out of her seat, chair scraping along the floor as she made a mad dash to the door. 

  
To her surprise, she was the first person to get up and bolt for the door. She briefly glanced back to find a surprised expression schooled on Lapis’ face, quickly masked with a look of stony confusion. It sent a tiny sense of accomplishment bubbling in her chest.

Stepping out into the hallway, she let out a breath of relief she didn’t know she was holding.

Rather ironic that introverted little Peridot, amongst the throng of teenagers, was where she found her short-lived comfort. Finding reprieve in being swallowed up in the busy bodies filling the hallways. 

She had no other classes with Lazuli that day, and she went home with a slight bounce in her step.

#

Her relief was short-lived. 

“Is that a love letter?” Pearl squawked from beside her. The little envelope fluttered out of Peridot's locker as soon as it swung open.

A day had passed. Peridot spent it at home, quite literally pouring over the shittiest season of Camp Pining Hearts in a vague attempt to clear her mind. Writing essays on her favorite show and posting them online to piss off Paulette stanners gave her a false sense of security in a very odd way. It _almost_ made her forget. 

Shocked and a tad bit embarrassed, she stooped over to snatch it. “Probably someone making fun of me.” She grumbled. 

“Doubtful.” The tall, lanky girl mused from beside her. “It looks to be quite genuine, Peridot.”

She ripped open the letter, eyes quickly scanning the contents, “There's no name?”

“Well, what does it say?”

“‘Meet me behind the school after classes end’.” Peridot recites dutifully. Pearl looks at her excitedly and she feels her cheeks flare. The girl was always a hopeless romantic. She rolls her eyes, opting to flip the paper over out of habit, catching sight of a little mark on the back of the envelope she didn’t quite catch before. A single, neat pair of cursive letters greeted her. 

‘ _L.L.’_

Her blood ran cold.

“Peridot?”

What’s the probable chance that it would be her enigmatic blue haired classmate? Statistically speaking: Low. Impossible. Lapis hated her - for any number of inconceivable reasons. Maybe Peridot _did_ insult her phone or something. In that case, it was incredibly petty, but she wouldn’t put it past half the people attending this school. She wracked her brain for any scenario that fit. Unable to recall ever saying _anything_ insulting to her face deliberately.

It had to be another person. Who else did she know? Out of everyone in her high school, there _had_ to be someone. No matter how hard she tried. No one else (that she knew of) shared the initials _L.L._ other than the enigmatic _Lapis Lazuli_.

_Wait. Wait. Wait_. 

What if it was a trap. What if she was luring her out there under the false pretense of being a romantic, only to stab her in the back. Literally. She was the school nerd alongside Pearl. A dweeb. Someone you pushed over in the halls, and knocked textbooks out of hands for nothing other than malicious intent. Lapis must’ve caught onto that by now right? Her goal was to embarrass Peridot, wasn’t it? That was the only explanation. After all, with Lapis’ glares and cold behavior, she couldn’t logically deduce any feasible outcome that hinted she had any romantic intent. 

“She’s gonna kill me.” The sentence leaves her lips in a startled rush without a second thought. Her eyes widen at the single letter. “I can’t meet her! I’ll go missing!” She says frantically. “Or worse!” 

Pearl gives her a startled bewildered look. “Wait, _what—_ ”

A hand on her shoulder from behind shoves her out of her manic thoughts, but sends her jolting fifteen feet in the air. 

“Woah! Hey P, Peridactyl.”

“Amethyst!” Peridot practically jumps her. “Help me!!”

“Huh?!” The stout girl adopts the same bewildered look Pearl wore not even three feet away. Her hands raised in a surrender motion. “Dude, chill out.”

“Lapis wants me to meet her behind the school today!” She ignores her, electing to panic. “She’s definitely gonna try something!”

“You’re overreacting.” Pearl says. “I’ll admit, this isn’t the most… _romantic_ declaration of love...” She studies the bare-boned sheet, eyes gliding over the neat sentence written in the very center. She looks almost dismissive. “If anything, she just seems shy.”

“Shy??” Peridot bemoans, “It’s downright serial killer-ish!”

“Okay, dude, you’re _definitely_ overreacting.” Amethyst chimes in, she peeks over Peridot’s shoulder at the source of her lamenting. “There isn’t even, like, _blood_ on it. How do you even know it’s her?”

“There doesn’t need to be blood for it to be _menacing!_ ” Peridot squawks. She frantically points to the cursive set of letters. “And who else in our entire school has the initials ‘L.L.’?! It’s even written in blue ink??”

Amethyst stares at her with widened eyes, shock plastered onto her face before it turns into one of mischievous humor. She bursts out into a loud obnoxious laugh. “Oh no. Lapis’ll be standing there… _menacingly_.”

“Ugh!”

Amethyst shakes her head, still laughing. “Just don’t go then, easy!”

Peridot gives her a baffled look, as if she had just sprouted another set of magic prehensile limbs. “Are you crazy? She’ll probably do something worse!”

“Peridot, honestly. This is ridiculous.” Pearl pipes up, furrowing her brows. She smacks Amethyst out of habit to quiet her vociferous cackling. It already caught the eyes of a few students milling about. “But if it’ll help relieve your discomfort, Amethyst and I will be just around the corner.”  
  


Said girl rubbed the back of her head gingerly, giving Pearl the stink eye. She smiles at Peridot, still wearing a teasing glint in her brown eyes in her own way of soft reassurance. “Yeah! No worries P-Dot! She can’t take all three of us.”

“Amethyst! We are _not_ resorting to violence.”

“Violence schmiolence.” The stout girl waves dismissively. “Point is. We’re not leaving Peri alone, right?”

Pearl nods and gives her a comforting smile. “Right.”

“See! It’ll be fine!.”

Tentatively, she meets their gaze, flickering between two encouraging expressions. A reluctant look schooled on her features. Pearl’s logic makes sense. At least if Lapis pulled a knife or something, Pearl was probably fast enough to nab a teacher before she could lose _too_ much blood. She sighs. “Thanks, guys.”

“Anytime Peri-snot. Plus, how can we be sure her glaring wasn’t just _ogling_ though _—_ “

“ _Amethyst!_ ”

#

Her steps are heavy when she finally rounds the corner of the chiseled, red-bricked building. The sun is just above the horizon, leaking the last few hours of light before it would finally dip under the starry sky. 

It was peacefully quiet. With most of the kids already off in their cars and meeting up with friends. Only distant yells of the school’s football team practicing in the field were the only indication the campus wasn’t completely deserted. Regardless, it did nothing to alleviate her jumbled nerves. 

Peridot tapped against the brick wall restlessly. She had spent the remaining day coming up with some convoluted, yet genuinely apologetic speech. Amethyst and Pearl, as promised, were out of view but within the vicinity should anything happen. The shorter girl exclaimed something about hiding in some bushes nearby or something before dragging the lanky girl away. She wondered if she managed to get Pearl to go along with her. The idea gave her a brief respite before it was promptly snuffed out like a flickering candle once she remembered her situation.

Pearl was very certain about nothing going wrong. Presenting Peridot with the facts that very vehemently pointed at Lapis being simply _shy_ and nothing more. (Very faintly she wonders if this _was_ an honest-to-god confession. Heat crawled along her neck at the very idea. She stamped that idea out faster than she could think. _There was no way_. She very adamantly refused with a vibrant blush.) Amethyst seemed to nod and agree with anything Pearl said. “ _It just makes sense, man. Pearl is right like, 90% of the time.”_ Traitor.

“‘Make sense,’ my ass.” Peridot grumbled. 

“What about your ass?”

The blonde startles, eyes widening, her eyebrows shooting up. “Lapis!” She squeaks pitifully. Her stomach twists and turns into a painful mess of hysteria. A boulder suddenly settles in the very depths of her gut.

“Hey.” Lapis says, her eyes are dark and pointed. A single eyebrow quirked up almost playfully, if it weren’t for the same glare as earlier. The girl’s lips were pressed into a thin line. Peridot involuntarily shuddered at the look. And for a tiny, imperceptible moment, Peridot saw a dust of pink along her tanned cheeks. The color vanishes almost as instantly as she notices. She wonders if she imagined it. This girl was giving her a lot of mixed signals.

“S-So!” Peridot blurts, her hands shoot up and she can’t stop herself from making jittery gestures. She looks away in an attempt to gather the speech she memorized earlier that day. Taking this as her last chance to apologize, she takes a deep breath before letting the verbal word vomit spill out hastily. “I’m not completely aware of what I did to offend you, Lazuli. B-But I’m deeply regretful if I have ever inadvertently provoked you—“

“Peridot.”

“—regarding something I might’ve stated over the course of the last week or so. It wasn’t my intention to make you feel—“

“ _Peridot.”_

“--inadequate, or—“

Unaware and, frankly, too caught up thanks to her continuous rambling, Peridot doesn’t catch Lapis approaching her. Not until she’s backed up against the wall, the older girl hovering just above her, hands languidly placed on either side of her to support her weight.

(Somewhere in the back of the blonde's mind, she register’s the furious red across the other girl’s cheeks. She chalks it up to annoyance thanks to her earlier stumbling, and decides to shut her mouth.)

“Peridot, I...” Lapis tries again. She tilts her head, face barely inches away from the smaller girl. She can feel her puffs of breath against her skin. Seeing scarcely visible freckles dotting along her tanned nose. She looks hesitant. Unsure. Her mouth opens a few times, as if she’s trying to speak but thinks otherwise. Her eyebrows furrow in frustration. There’s a brief moment where she licks her lips, and all Peridot can do is stare wide-eyed and flustered. 

“Just…”

She’s riddled with faint bemusement as the girl reaches for her back pocket. Pulling out another slip of paper, before roughly shoving it into the blondes chest and stepping back. Caught off guard, the girl catches it after fumbling for a few moments.

Peridot glances at the folded paper and back to Lapis in bemusement. The girl’s once stiflingly present intimidating aura was vastly muted under what Peridot could only describe as intense nervousness. 

She looks back at the paper, carefully unfolding it with shaky hands and reads it slowly.

It’s definitely not what she expected.

A single sentence sat on the page. A measly three words sprawled along the lines in a neat little font.

“Y-you—“ Peridot gawks, pointing to herself.

Her face flourishes into a shade of bright pink. Truly, it rivaled even Principle Universe’s lovely locks of curly hair.

Lapis nods almost imperceptibly at the gesture. Her hands are hidden behind her back and her face reflects Peridot's flustered look— if not more rosy. She refuses to meet her gaze.

“...To m-me?” 

Another subtle nod. 

“Oh.”

Lapis looks up and at her, and this time, Peridot doesn’t see a glare. 

She sees a shy girl, with quite possibly the sharpest set of beautiful brown eyes meeting her gaze. The intimidating aura that seemed to radiate off her leather bound shoulders splits and turns into one of a quiet, bashful energy. It makes the boulder weighing in her gut burst into a flurry of butterflies.

Gone was the intimidating nature of Lapis Lazuli. All that was left was the shy, incredibly alluring girl staring back.

“Me too.”

And suddenly she’s being lifted, and her mind goes into hyperdrive. There's the smallest pressure on her cheek as Lapis brushes her lips against her with an affectionate snort. She hears a laugh erupt from her lips, unrecognizable and foreign to her own ears. “About time.” Lapis hums. Amidst the happiness suddenly bursting her ribs, she faintly hears a loud ‘whoop!’ and an ‘I told you so!’ in the distance. But the arms wrapped tightly around her seem to block everything else out. Her earlier fears lost in the mess of tangled limbs.

"Lapis?" she squeaks when her grip settles on the taller girl's shoulders, fists softly clenched against her leather jacket. If her breath didn't already leave her, it certainly did with the beaming smile Lapis gave her when she looked up. The butterflies in her stomach flutter up an enormous storm, leaving her feeling _oh so_ warm. She looked so much more different...so much more lively and beautiful. Messy vibrant, blue hair settles and frames her bashful cheeks. Brown eyes sparkle playfully and-

_Oh geez, oh geez--!_

"Yes, nerd?" Her voice held such playful, teasing affection.

She feels herself falling. She finds it's not as scary as she initially thought. “I like you too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative ending I wrote had Peridot passing out with a very squeaky ‘I like you too’, and Amethyst cackling in the distance. But I liked this ending slightly more.


End file.
